Medical City: Education Sector Update

Insight Magazine

By Nikki Stephens

With the University of Central Florida College of Medicine completing its first year and with plans for a Valencia campus, as well as a UCF new dental school in the planning stages, many of the initial large-scale education components of the Medical City are coming together nicely.

The UCF College of Medicine was established in 2006 by the Florida Board of Governors, the Florida Legislature and the Governor of Florida in order to increase opportunities for medical education in Florida, address the physician shortage and enhance the overall economy. According to the school’s website, www.med.ucf.edu, the College of Medicine is a forward-looking medical school with a culture based on partnership and collaboration and is an integral part of the growing medical city in Lake Nona.

In August 2010, the M.D. program enrolled its second class of 60 students, and for the second year in a row, the college received more applications than any other public medical school in Florida.

The UCF Medical school is also doing its part in building up the economy, even surpassing projected numbers. In 2006, the Milken Institute conducted a study to determine a 10-year economic-activity projection based on the addition of the school. In only two years of running, the school has reached 80 percent of that projection already.

A 2008 economic impact study says that by 2017 up to 30,000 new jobs could be added. UCF is also addressing the physician shortage around the country right now by producing up to 120 medical graduates a year.

Down the road, Valencia College broke ground on the first building of its new Lake Nona Campus on June 22. The Valencia campus will open opportunities for students to study biomedical and life sciences and to earn their associate degrees.

Dr. Mike Bosley, assistant provost at Valencia College Lake Nona, says the three-story, 83,000 square-foot building will open in August 2012. It will have 18 classrooms, six science labs, a library, a bookstore, small café and administrative offices. It cost roughly $21.7 million and is the first of four buildings proposed for the campus. All four buildings will eventually accommodate about 5,000 students and 250,000 square feet.

There is also hope for a UCF dental school in the area. Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala, senior communications coordinator for UCF News & Information, says UCF’s proposed College of Dental Medicine will be an economic driver for Central Florida, will strengthen the UCF Health Sciences Campus at Lake Nona and will bring an increased focus to the emerging medical city.

The idea of a new dental school in the area is undergoing a lot of criticism though, which stems from state reports that say there are plenty of dentists in Florida, just not in the areas with the greatest need.

Kotala says the Florida Board of Governors is currently considering whether it is wise to invest in creating these costly dental schools when the schools won’t necessarily address the big picture problem. UCF responds to this debate by not seeking any state funds for the dental college. “We have a $10 million donation, will secure loans and are creating a funding model that requires no state funds,” she says. “The school will use tuition and fees as well as clinic income to be self-sufficient.”

The College of Dental Medicine is expected to create at least 110 local jobs as well as an initial economic impact of $73 million.

If the Board of Governors approves the building of a dental school, Kotala says the plan is to construct one building next to the UCF College of Medicine and have the school’s first 60 students start classes in 2014.

OCPS Budget to Remain Flat

Insight Magazine

By Nikki Stephens

Orange County students, teachers and parents can rest assured that the quality education they came to know this past school year will again be provided, even with the large cuts in federal funding for the school system. Orlando-area schools will not see a change in the budget for this year, while neighboring districts will be harboring steep cuts.

The budget remaining flat is thanks to the county voters who approved a millage increase of one-mil to prevent the cuts this past November. Millage is a rate of taxation expressed in mills – short for millions – per dollar.

The budget remaining flat is thanks to the county voters who approved a millage increase of one-mil to prevent the cuts this past November.

According to Richard Collins, the chief financial officer for Orange County Public Schools (OCPS), this particular millage should generate around $83 million to go toward public education. The revenue will replace the Federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) state-fiscal-stabilization dollars that the district lost as of June 30, and will also replace the 0.25 critical-needs millage that expired the same day. According to reports by the Orlando Sentinel, “Other major factors in holding the budget in the same spot are $44 million in newly mandated retirement contributions and $37 million that was saved by federal funding of education jobs last year.”

Collins says, “We will continue to provide a high-quality instructional program even with the reduced state funding and increased competition for scarce resources.”

The budget is designed to provide resources for the instruction of students. “The focus is always on our strategic plan, with the vision of being the top producer of successful students in the nation,” says Collins. The General Fund is where OCPS pays for district operations, such as instruction, transportation, school administration and more. Collins says the General Fund budget should be close to $1.5 billion, including all carry-over amounts, and is based on tax revenues of just more than $1.2 billion.

According to the school funding advocacy website, http://www.FundEducationNow.org, the Orange County budget remaining the same is much-needed for the state of Florida due to Florida’s legislature cutting the K -12 education budget by more than $1.3 billion since 2007, with Orange County losing $105.4 million of that amount. Fund Education Now is a grassroots, non-partisan group created by three Orange County Public School mothers who hope to empower residents to vote on behalf of Florida’s children and their education both now and in the future. Interestingly, the site also states that 10 years ago the state of Florida funded 61 percent of education costs but now only funds 51 percent.

Last year the budget broke down as follows: 75 percent of the Orange County education budget went toward Instruction and Instructional Support, 10 percent to Plant Operation and Maintenance, 7 percent to School Administration, 4 percent to Transportation, 3 percent to General Support and 1 percent to General Administration and School Board. Collins says this year’s distribution of funds will be comparable to last year’s with only minor adjustments as new ways to improve the system and spending are developed. “But there won’t be any significant redistribution,” he says.

Changes that Orange County schools will see include some restructuring of jobs approved by the superintendent and an increase in the number of teachers district-wide due to increased enrollment.

While the rest of the state worries about the money their schools deserve, Orange County can sleep easy, though, knowing its students’ educations won’t waver due to reduced funding for at least another year.

Collins says, “The exact total budget numbers will change between now and the time of the public hearing as we continue to close out our fiscal year that ended June 30.” Budget hearings are scheduled for August 2 and September 13. To learn more, visit www.OCPS.net.

Sunrise Elementary Changing the World

Insight Magazine

By Nikki Stephens

The title of “superhero” isn’t limited to comic book characters anymore. One fifth grade class at Sunrise Elementary School redefines the meaning by helping to save the world through recycling.

Tricia LaChance’s fifth grade class was a national finalist in this year’s Siemens “We can Change the World” Elementary School Challenge in the grades three to five category. Her students researched what type of trash was thrown away at their school and which of those types could be recycled. They educated parents, students and teachers on the issue through posters, videos, PowerPoint presentations and even helped answer any questions people had on the topic. Through their research they found their school threw away more Styrofoam lunchroom trays than any other type of trash. Students then found a way to recycle 44,820 trays from their school alone in a single year.

LaChance, who has been teaching for 14 years, 11 of which at Sunrise Elementary, says her students got involved with the project during a class discussion on environmental issues. “They discovered that even at the young age of 10 and 11 they can make a difference,” she says. “They felt empowered that they had made a difference in their world.”

The trays are taken to Blue Earth Solutions, a company that is involved in developing and implementing ways of recycling polystyrene foam and expanded polystyrene, where they are turned into pellets. The pellets are then sold and made into many different products. Some of the items manufactured from recycled Styrofoam include rulers, video cassette shells, toys, sun visors, building insulation, flower pots, egg cartons, push pins, landscape supplies and desktop accessories. Sarah Sosa is a student in LaChance’s class who was involved in the challenge. She says, “Now I look at things like Styrofoam and know it can be recycled. I never knew. I’m recycling more and being less careless.”

The students began contacting and giving presentations to other schools in the surrounding area to join the recycling project. In fact, they were able to get two full truckloads of trays to Blue Earth Solutions when East Lake Elementary, Castle Creek Elementary and Camelot joined in the recycling.

An estimated 100,000 trays were kept out of the landfill thanks to the research and hard work of LaChance’s class, the self-proclaimed Earth Defenders.

Because of the impact of their environmental project, the students won a free trip to SeaWorld sponsored by Keep Orlando Beautiful and SeaWorld. In addition to being a national finalist in the Siemens Change the World Challenge, the class also received an Honorable Mention Green in Action award from Green Education Foundation.

LaChance says it is important for children in this generation to learn the importance of recycling because it saves money, reduces air and water pollution, helps preserve wildlife, protects non-renewable resources and reduces the amount of trash in landfill sites. Lauren Stecker, another fifth-grade student in LaChance’s class, says, “This project has changed my point of view [on recycling] because before I didn’t know that landfills were such a big issue. Now I know that Styrofoam can be recycled and used for bigger and better things.”

Sunrise Elementary is involved in many other environmentally conscious activities as well. Every year the fifth-grade classes sponsor an Earth Day event to teach younger students about conservation and environmental issues through games, activities and presentations. Sunrise also helps the planet with two organic vegetable gardens, a Florida Native garden and a butterfly garden. In addition to Styrofoam, the school even recycles ink cartridges, cardboard, paper and many other items and is currently in an effort to go 100 percent paperless to cut back on trash in their students’ homes as well.